A small international planning conference on the topic of
"An International Network of Food Data Systems" was
held from 30 January to 5 February 1983 at the Rockefeller
Conference and Study Centre in Bellagio, Italy. It was sponsored
through the Food, Nutrition, and Poverty Subprogramme of the
United Nations University and supported by various US government
agencies, private foundations, and the food industry.
Representatives from FAO, WHO, IUNS, and lUFoST participated in
the discussions. The purpose was to explore the needs for, and
current limitations of, food composition data bases, especially
in the international context.

Information on the nutrient and non nutrient composition of
foods, beverages, and their ingredients contributes significantly
to a variety of activities. These range from the assessment of
population intake of nutrients and non nutrient food constituents
to the formulation of food production and nutrition policies and
programmes, and to institutional meal planning and calculation of
therapeutic diets. Furthermore, increasing interest in, and
concern for, the relationships between diet, food habits, and
degenerative diseases, including coronary heart disease,
diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and cancers, has stimulated
current interest in detailed chemical data on foods.

There are a number of food composition data bases in the world
today (1). However, they contain data of varying reliability,
much of which is out of date, and all data bases are incomplete
in terms of either items listed or components described. Further,
these data bases tend to be incompatible with one another, and
are often difficult to access even when their existence is known.
Moreover, these problems are becoming more acute as new foods and
new methods of production and storage are continually being
developed, and as international trade in food expands. Although
specialized data sets are being produced to meet special needs,
there is little or no concern with ensuring uniform reliability
and overall compatibility.

Moreover, another facet of the problem is that, while most of
the information on the components of foods is currently
disseminated in the conventional, printed-page format (and this
is likely to continue as an important mode of communication for
many users), modern information processing technology is
increasingly becoming used by those involved in all areas of the
pro auction and use of food composition data. Differences,
incompatibilities and errors can now be generated and transmitted
at electronic speeds. Thus, given a potential for an
"information explosion," it is important that the whole
area of food composition data be critically examined. The
problems that can arise from non-standardised, non-evaluated data
collection, storage, and dissemination affect all those in the
scientific and technical community involved with food composition
data.

The establishment of national and international standardizing
organisations and data bases has done much to improve the
reliability, intelligibility, accessibility, and transferability
of other scientific and technical data (2). Therefore, the
desirability of initiating an international cooperative effort in
food component data systems was considered, especially with
reference to the importance of food in international trade, in
national and international aid programmes, and in the broad area
of public health. The underlying premise was that it would be a
major advantage to the community of nutritionists, food
scientists, and health professionals if food and nutrient data
services were compatible and readily accessible (3).

OBJECTIVES AND APPROACH

From 30 January to 5 February 1983 a group of individuals (see
List of Participants) met at the Rockefeller Study and Conference
Centre, Bellagio, Italy, to discuss the broad topic of food
composition data. The goal was to explore and develop relevant
topic areas, and to identify approaches that might be taken
within each area, with a view to defining an overall strategy and
course of action that would promote establishment of a
standardised, high quality, readily accessible international food
data system. This planning conference was organized by the Food,
Nutrition, and Poverty Sub programme of the United Nations
University (UNU) and financially sponsored by various US
government agencies, private industry, and the Rockefeller
Foundation.

The format of the conference consisted of the presentation of
commissioned background working papers, their extensive
discussion, and the drafting of reports by five conference
working groups summarizing the issues and proposing concrete
plans to begin to resolve these issues. A summary of their
discussions and recommendations forms a major part of the present
report. One purpose of this document is to inform those concerned
with generating, compiling, and using food composition data of
the proposals made and plans emerging from this small
international planning conference.

THE CREATION OF INFOODS

The conference formulated the following mission: promotion of
international participation and cooperation in the acquisition
and dissemination of complete and accurate data on the
composition of foods, beverages, and their ingredients, in forms
appropriate to meet the needs of the various users; government
agencies; nutrition scientists and educators; health and
agriculture professionals; policy makers and planners; food
producers, processors, and retailers, and consumers. It was
agreed by the participants that this mission could best be
carried out through creation of an organization, to be called
INFOODS, that would work in the following areas: the development
of international criteria for judging the quality of data on food
composition; identification of existing sources of useful data on
food composition; promotion of the generation, acquisition, and
dissemination of new data on the composition of foods, beverages,
and their ingredients that meet the criteria developed;
facilitating' on a world-wide basis, the access, retrieval,
interchange, and general harmonization of food composition data.

To reach. these goals the conference examined the problem from
five aspects: (a) users and needs, (b) data base content, (c)
sources of data, (d) data base organization and operation, and
(e) general implementation. Working groups examined each of these
topics and made recommendations by which the work could be
carried out. These are described below.

FINDINGS OF WORKING GROUPS

Users and Needs

The first conference working group considered the users of
food composition data, the needs of these users, and whether
these needs were being satisfactorily met by the currently
available food composition data.

Current needs. In general, information on food
composition is used by researchers, educators, public health and
clinical nutritionists, government agencies, and many industries
for the purposes of evaluating and enhancing the nutritional
health status of populations and individuals. Knowledge of food
composition enables policy makers to develop rational food aid
programmes to improve the health status of populations. Industry
has developed new foods, and agriculture has expanded its
research on new strains of plants and animals, based firmly on a
knowledge of the composition of foods.

The field has now reached the stage where the standardization
of methods for sampling and analysis of foods and international
compatibility of the data are essential to further the
collaboration among groups of individuals and countries in
research, education, regulation, and food production and
processing.

The following illustrate some of the uses of, and needs for,
food composition data:

Food Industry

Interest in food composition by industry has evolved primarily
as a consequence of food labeling regulations, the search for
economically advantageous alternative food product composition,
and the desire to anticipate consumer concerns for components of
foods that have nutritional and health significance. Improved
access to extensive high-quality data would aid in these
endeavours, and further, by filling gaps in current information
and reducing duplication of efforts, this would likely save time
and money and open new areas for smaller firms that cannot afford
to maintain and operate extensive analytical laboratories.

Research

The study of the relationship of diet to health and disease
requires accurate information on the nutrient and non nutrient
components of food. Prospective, as well as retrospective
epidemiologic studies, intervention studies, and clinical trials
all require precise information on dietary and nutrient intake.
Epidemiological investigations that involve multi-country studies
need food composition data that are precisely and uniformly
defined. Similarly, investigators carrying out metabolic balance
studies require information from food composition tables to
supplement data on particular nutrients that are analyzed during
the conduct of such studies. While many data exist, improvement
of their accuracy and completeness would greatly benefit all
researchers in those areas.

Clinical Practice

Physicians and dietitians use information on food composition
in treating a broad range of patients, including those with
genetic and metabolic diseases. The formulation of special diets
is an expanding area of food technology where industry can both
contribute information and make economic gains. This would be
facilitated by easy access to an enlarged food composition data
base.

Nutrition and Public Health Surveys

Food composition data are used to estimate nutrient and
non-nutrient consumption from surveys of food disappearance,
household food purchases, and records of dietary intake. These
various approaches measure food consumption at different levels,
and data bases need to be extensive, current, compatible, and
accurate to permit evaluation and comparison of survey results.

Nutrition Education-Dietary Guidance

Nutrition education programmes and dietary guidance materials
are directed towards improving the nutritional quality of diets
through appropriate selection of foods. Food composition data are
used in preparing food guides and in developing and evaluating
menus to illustrate nutrition principles. Both nationally and
inter nationally, more complete, compatible, and readily avail
able data on food composition are needed.

Agriculture

Knowledge of food composition is fundamental to agricultural
activities. Currently, many institutional organizations and
centres for agriculture research develop their own tables on food
composition in conjunction with their programmes to develop new
strains of plants and in the study of animal and crop husbandry
practices. At the national and international levels, researchers
have been able to change the composition of primary food sources
in various ways, for example, by selective plant and animal
breeding, or by modification of procedures such as fertilizer
management practices. There has often been a tendency in such
research programmes to consider the physical and economic
properties of the foods as being more important than the nutrient
content of the products.

In all these endeavours, progress would be aided by a
coordinated effort to improve, expand, and link existing data
bases.

Consumers

The public has developed an interest in nutrition information
that has led to various developments in the commercial sector,
including production and marketing of aids to determine calorie
expenditures, assess dietary intakes, and facilitate choice of
foods for specific purposes. Thus, there is a small but growing
demand for access to specified subsets of food data. These
demands are now being met only infrequently, and by data bases
that often contain inaccurate and conflicting data.

Food Regulation

Food composition tables are essential for the design and
implementation of regulations to maintain safety and quality of
the food supply. They are used to establish food identities, to
control substitution of ingredients, to check the validity of
advertising, and to formulate labelling laws. In some areas of
the world, governments support programmes for the gathering of
food composition data. This provides an ongoing dynamic data base
that could be exploited more effectively to track levels of
specific nutrients and contaminants in individual foods and mixed
diets, and to determine the effects of agricultural practices,
manufacturing practices, fortification and food additive policy
on the intakes of, and exposure to, chemicals by individuals and
groups as a whole. These programmes could both contribute to
filling some of the gaps in present food data bases and benefit
from an evaluation and linking of existing data bases.

Developing Countries

A major problem that relates to the resolution of food
problems in developing countries is the scarcity of reliable data
on the nutritional value of local foods. For example, the food
composition data that are available in Latin American countries
are scattered among a number of tables prepared in different
countries. Most of the data were obtained several decades ago and
much of the material remains unpublished. Moreover, there is also
a lack of uniformity among tables in the way in which data have
been obtained, organized, and presented. The Food Composition Table
for Use in Latin America, compiled in 1961 by INCAP-ICNND
(4) was based largely on the analyses performed in the 1940s. It
has not been up dated in the twenty years since, and is not
necessarily representative of foods currently being consumed.
Similar problems are common to many other developing regions of
the world. These problems need to be surveyed carefully, and
their resolution possibly accomplished in the context of a
world-wide food data base system.

Current Status of Food Composition Data

Food composition tables as they exist today are incomplete
both in items and constituents included. For example, the
analysis of food components has not kept pace with advances in
epidemiologic research and investigations with animal models that
indicate important associations between certain provitamins
(i.e., beta-carotenes) and nonnutrients (dietary fibres) and
degenerative diseases. Furthermore, in view of improved and new
analytic techniques, some laboratories use methods that are
inappropriate, and often values obtained by different
laboratories are not comparable. This inadequate state of affairs
compounds the difficulties associated with international
collaborative research such as that concerned with the causes and
prevention of degenerative disease, including cardiovascular
disease and cancers.

At the present time, there is no internationally organized
effort to develop a standardized system to collect and process
food data for common use in either the developed or developing
regions of the world. Some countries currently do not have the
technical capability do develop a food/nutrient data base,
although the data would be valuable to them. Access to reliable
nutrient composition data would permit the encouragement of
agricultural production of indigenous foods to meet unique
regional needs and enable nutritionists and consumers to select
food products for balanced diets, maximizing utilization of
available resources for improving nutritional status of the
population.

An up to date system, based on modern technology and the
expanding field of information science, would be of use to those
individuals and organizations involved in international
agricultural production research. The Consultative Group of
International Agricultural Research has recently been formed to
coordinate the activities of a number of international research
institutes such as the Rice Research Institute (Philippines), the
Potato Institute (Peru), and others. Not only do these institutes
have a need for precise compositional data, but they also are
generating composition data that might be of broader interest to
researchers in the fields of agriculture, nutrition, food
science, and health.

FAO and WHO have ongoing commitments to technical assistance
in the developing world. An internationally organized and
standardized food data system would complement their efforts and
be of considerable aid to research and assistance programmes,
facilitating practical solutions to nutritional concerns
throughout the world. Indeed, a major advance in this context
would be a network of regional/national centres directed towards
the generation, compilation, and dissemination of accurate and
complete data on food composition. Ultimately, this could evolve
into an integrated system on all primary foodstuffs and food
products, commercially available or locally produced, all over
the world, with information about all essential nutrients as well
as non-nutrients, both occurring naturally or those introduced
into the food chain through various ways.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It was recommended that:

(i) An international organization be established to
provide leadership for the development of standards and
guidelines for gathering, compiling, and reporting food
component data, to serve as the focus for the development
of special data bases that have international importance,
and to facilitate the linking of data bases world-wide.

(ii) An expert group be organized to detail the
specific needs of the communities of users for food
composition data.

(iii) An expert group be organized to consider what
specific data bases and subsets of world-wide food
composition data now exist or would be of value to the
mission of INFOODS.

Data Base Content

Given a preliminary enumeration of user needs, the next set of
considerations is related to the problems of what data would be
required to fulfil the needs. Thus, the second working group
considered what the data base should contain.

The current situation results in part from the fact that the
various user groups have needs for different subsets of foods and
of different components of foods. While this is natural, it makes
it difficult, if not impossible, to use information from more
than one data base at the same time. A partial solution to this
problem requires internationally agreed upon definitions of foods
and their components. Without such guidelines, it is expected
that food composition data bases will become less and less
compatible, further limiting the use of food component data as a
resource for international cooperation and investigation.

Food Items

Food items are defined to include foods, beverages, and their
ingredients, including herbs and spices, additives that
contribute meaningful amounts of nutrients, and other listed
constituents as well as substances that are major components of
foods but not necessarily essential nutrients, such as
unavailable carbohydrates. For every food item an unambiguous
name and description is required.

Food Components

For the purposes of designing data files, the compositional
data for each food item fall into two general categories: Record
data and the archival data. The record data include those
describing the nutrients and other usually reported constituents,
while the archival data are values for those constituents only
occasionally measured or found in foods.

Record data. The designation of specific nutrients
and other substances such as record data is based on availability
of reliable data and on the needs for the information by user
groups. Thus, it is essential that data, traditionally referred
to as proximate analysis, be included in order to calculate
energy values and provide certain information about
carbohydrates, lipids, and protein.

Other nutrients and food substances should include not only
commonly reported minerals (Ca, Fe [total and non-haem], P, Na,
Mg, K, Zn, Cu, Mn), for which the analytical methodology has been
well established and the difficulty for acquiring reliable data
is considered to be modest, but also data for occasionally
reported minerals (Cl, Cr, I, S, Se, Co, Ni, SN, Mo, Fi, Si, V,
As). Although these latter data are less available and values for
many items are not likely to exist for some time, such data are
required by many users. With advances in analytic methodology,
the availability and reliability of data for these elements
should improve. Record data might also include the so-called
heavy metals {mercury, cadmium, and lead) that are of interest to
various users in relation to the public health significance of
these metals.

All of the vitamins, as recognized by the Inter national Union
of Nutritional Sciences, should be included, with separate values
being reported for different vitamins and provitamins where such
compounds contribute significantly to the overall biological
activity of the vitamin. Such information is critical for many
user needs, for example, in relation to establishing safe dietary
intakes or recommended allowances, or assessing the stability of
nutrients during food processing.

For the lipid components of food, information is now required
on all individual fatty acids found in foods; totals for
saturated, monoenes, polyenes, and trans-fatty acids, and
individual sterols should be recorded. For quality of proteins,
knowledge of levels of the nutritionally indispensable and
dispensable amino acids is needed.

Archival data Much compositional data, especially
those on non-nutrients and contaminants, are not appropriate for
routine inclusion, being either too infrequently reported (which
applies to most non-nutritive constituents) or too sporadic in
occurrence to justify generalizations about these constituents in
food. Such items include non-nutrient additives, toxicologically
and biologically active constituents and compounds arising during
processing of foods. Also to be included in the archival record
are detailed descriptors of the sample on which the measurements
were made. Thus, a standardized food component data system should
be organized to permit ready interaction with specialized data
bases such as those containing information on toxic substances.

Data Qualifiers

Certain descriptors of the data are a necessary part of the
data file. Among these are the numbers of observations,
descriptive statistics, quality codes, and regional and seasonal
information. Detailed information on analytical methodology is
essential, especially in reference to quality control procedures.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended that:

(i) A network of individual data bases, carefully screened
for accuracy and compatibility, be developed
(ii) Communication channels be set up to reduce the
duplication of efforts in the areas of food analysis and data
file production.
(iii) A global survey be made of existing data bases and of
ongoing and planned data collection efforts.
(iv) An expert group be commissioned to examine methods of,
and develop guidelines for, extracting archival data from the
literature and other sources.

Sources of Food Composition Data

The third working group considered the question of how to
gather the needed data to ensure its accuracy and completeness.
It was felt that the accuracy of the data was the most important
problem faced by users of food composition data. With respect to
the entire sequence, from initial sampling to sample preparation
to chemical assay, each laboratory uses at least slightly
different procedures. Furthermore, there is often little
information in the data bases themselves to indicate how the data
were obtained, or their reliability. This greatly hampers the
work of users of the data, especially those interested in using
data from different data bases.

As food composition data continue to be gathered, and new
sampling and analytic techniques are developed and new data bases
are set up, more and more problems will adversely affect the
users of the data. An inter nationally coordinated effort is
necessary to begin to resolve the many facets of these problems.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It was recommended that:

(i) An expert group be set up to explore the issue of
quality of data and, specifically, to update current
guidelines for the preparation of tables of food composition
(5).
(ii) A programme of training fellowships be established to
promote expansion of expertise in all areas directly
concerned with food composition analysis.
(iii) The feasibility of establishing an international
journal devoted broadly to food composition studies be
investigated.

Data Base Organization and Operation

There is obviously considerable diversity of users and uses,
and thus diversity of the data and data manipuIations required.
Significant problems arise, therefore, with respect to data base
organization and operation, and a fourth working group considered
these.

There are a number of important concerns relevant to
organization of a general data system. These include: (a) the
data base, its elements (e.g., size and limitations), and its
organization (e.g., design and structure); (b) the mechanisms
related to developing and delivering the data base to its
"users" (e.g., telecommunications, tapes or diskette,
hard copy; (c) the mechanisms for servicing the data base (e.g.,
updating, annotating, and distributing).

To control and operate a general data base, a data base
management system is required. Such a system is a series of
computer programmes that help to establish a data base, to
maintain relationships between data items, and to add new data
items into the data base after the initial design. it should
build and maintain its own dictionaries that are required to
provide flexible retrieval possibilities and also provide a query
language to facilitate the retrieval of specific subsets of the
data base.

The problems of managing data within a particular data base
are much less serious than the problems of managing data among
different data bases. Yet, in order to solve the many problems
raised at this planning conference, diverse data sets must be
used together. The merging of all existing data in the world into
a single data base located at a specific geographic site is
totally impractical, given the present and foreseeable realities
of technology and politics. However, an alternative that appears
likely to succeed and to be useful is that of designating
regional centres to serve users within specific geographic areas
and setting up a small international coordinating centre that
would link these regional centres and facilitate data and
information exchange among them.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended that:

(i) A network of regional centres be designated, and a
small central facility be set up to prepare and disseminate
standards, monitor compliance, and deal with problems of user
relations such as training and documentation.
(ii} An expert group be organized to explore and plan the
informational system aspects of this net work,
(iii) An expert group be organized to establish nomenclature
and a system of coding to be used internationally in food
composition data.
(iv) An expert group be set up to develop information
exchange standards for food composition data.

Implementation and Management

A fifth group explored the organizational frame. work
necessary to implement the recommendations made by the other
working groups. The organizational framework proposed took into
consideration the fact that the United Nations University Council
has sponsored this planning conference as a project of its
Hunger, Nutrition, and Poverty Sub programme.

Key to these considerations was the concept of INFOODS (for
International Network of Food Data Systems) as an international
organization with responsibility to carry out the mission
developed by this conference. It was obvious that INFOODS needs
to have several very different aspects, It needs to be

(i) a network of regional data centres;
(ii) an organizational/administrative framework for various
expert task forces;
(iii) the generator (and commissioner) of special
international data bases;
(iv) a stimulator of national data base programmes, and
(v) a general and specific resource for persons and
organizations interested in food composition data on a
world-wide basis.

It was agreed that the continuing development of INFOODS
should be the responsibility of a policy committee that would
formulate policies and approve the programme and budget of
INFOODS. The first chairman should be nominated by an interim
policy committee and appointed by UNU for an initial period of
three years.

Regional liaison committee chairmen should be sought and
appointed as members of the policy committee. Additional members
should be appointed by the UNU for staggered three-year terms on
the basis of the recommendations of the interim policy committee.

Nominations should also be sought from other sources. It was
anticipated that the permanent policy committee should meet
within one year. The policy committee should nominate an
executive director, to be appointed by the UNU, and a secretariat
established in a convenient location with UNU logistic support.
The executive director should be responsible to the policy
committee for the execution of its programmes. An executive
committee should guide a secretariat in implementing activities
approved by the policy committee and act for the policy committee
between its meetings.

Regional liaison committees should be established to provide
regional liaison to assure regional input into the policy
committee, and to conduct regional activities. The chairmen and
members should initially be appointed for two-year terms by the
UNU upon nomination by the interim policy committee or the policy
committee when it is established. Subsequent chairmen and new
members will be nominated by the respective regional committees
and appointed by the UNU.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It was recommended that:

(i) The continuing development of INFOODS be the
responsibility of a policy committee that would advise an
executive committee that would set up and run a secretariat.
(ii) The secretariat prepare a detailed plan for carrying out
the recommendations of the conference.
(iii) Contact be established with potential regional
organizations with a view to their integration into an
international network.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

At the final session, an interim Policy Committee was elected,
composed of R. Bressani, A. Bruce, A. Campbell, H. Haendler, W.
Trebeljahr, and V. Young (Chairman). They, in turn, nominated R.
Bressani, A. Campbell, and V. Young as the interim Executive
Committee. It was further decided that a secretariat would be
established, with V. Young as Executive Director and W. Rand as
Executive Secretary.

The secretariat was then charged with preparing a plan for
proceeding with the recommendations of the conference:

(i) Set up an organization to be called IN FOODS: to be an
international organization that will provide leadership for
the development of standards and guidelines for collection,
compilation, and reporting of food component data; that will
serve as the focus for the development of special data bases
that have international importance, and that will facilitate
the linking of data bases world-wide, with the aim of
coordinating a network of regional/national data centres
directed towards the generation, compilation, and
dissemination of accurate and complete data on food
composition.

(ii) Make contact with relevant individuals and
organizations around the world, in order to involve them in
the INFOODS initiative. The latter should be undertaken in
cooperation and close consultation with FAO and WHO.

(iii) Investigate the feasibility of establishing an
international journal devoted to food composition studies.
Such a journal would facilitate adoption of guidelines by the
scientific community, serve as an information source for any
future revision of the guidelines, and would provide a means
for dissemination of findings and critical reviews in all
areas of food composition.

(iv) Set up, direct, and coordinate task forces for the
following activities:

(a) Detail the specific needs of the users, actual and
potential, of food composition data.
(b) Compile a global survey of existing data bases and of
ongoing and planned data collection efforts. Special
attention should be directed toward assessing the
coverage, completeness, and compatibility of such data
bases.
(c) Explore what specific data bases and subsets or
combinations of world wide food composition data would be
of value to the mission of INFOODS. Special attention
should be paid to problems that arise in international
trade and to those unique to developing regions in the
world.
(d) Examine the entire area of data gathering, with
sampling, assay, and quality control of special interest.
An important aspect of this activity should be
examination of the problems of extracting data from the
literature and other sources as well as the critically
important question of establishing criteria for accepting
data into any food composition data base.
(e) Detail the specific content of an "ideal"
data file. This activity should include as a major task
the development of information interchange standards, a
standard format and set of conventions for the
interchange of food data between regional centres. Such a
format should be usable in communicating with both large
and small systems and should be designed independently of
the internal formats of any particular machine.
(f) Establish nomenclature and a system of coding to be
used in INFOODS. This will include defining and
recommending terms for identifying foods (including terms
for origin, part, process, maturity, and others as
required) and identifying components, units of
expression, analytical methods, preferences, locations,
environmental conditions, and others as necessary.
(g) Explore and plan the information system aspects of
INFOODS. This should include

(i) development of a model system in terms of data
flow, data organization, and information services to
be provided;
(ii) discussion with existing centres to identity
those prepared to serve as INFOODS regional centres,
with a view to determining how they could be
integrated into an overall system and how their
current structure and modes of operation would
influence the design of the necessary interfaces
between various centres;
(iii) development of an implementation plan;
(iv) carrying out the detailed data analysis and
function analysis of the proposed INFOODS;
(v) development and testing of a prototype system;
(vi) overview and the control system development;
(vii) coordination of various aspects of system
development, and
(viii) evaluation of the system once operational.

Because this initiative is inherently international, the
conference strongly supported the UNU's role as the lead agency
in the development of INFOODS. In addition, the conference
recognized the continuing responsibility of FAO for the
development and distribution of regional food tables and that
INFOODS should cooperate with FAO in this task as desired by
them. Similarly, FAO and WHO have responsibility for the Codex
Alimenterius, and thus INFOODS should not initiate any activities
that conflict with it and should cooperate with FAO and WHO to
the extent that FAO and WHO consider appropriate.